So i guess everyone is leaving..?

Any novices/members who read this, feel free to contact me as well.

I do my best to comment on every new person's post and acknowledge them, but I admit, sometimes people slip. I'm usually on everyday but I do have a full time job that may hinder me from getting back to you ASAP.

Like Ava, I'm just an apprentice but I am more than happy to help in any way I can!

Asakura Shoji wrote: The only person who has done any direct, unsolicited, "Hey, you're new!" outreach to me at all is Brick. (Thank you, Brick!)

No problem Shoji

I'm sad to hear that you, Nami, and other newcomers have felt a bit ignored. That's a failing on our part, and I'd like to apologies to all of you for that.

There's been an awful lot going on recently (I know everyone keeps saying that). But I'm not just talking about the arguments that you're hearing about. We've also been a little under staffed due to a couple of people stepping down from certain office's a while ago and those positions not yet being filled, our head of the welcoming party went on holiday for 2 weeks, and our membership application system was down.

As a result of all of this the Temple has kind of been running on a skeleton crew, with everyone taking on twice the workload they normally do, and so our communication and interaction with newcomers has been considerably worse than usual. I'm not trying to make excuses there, just trying to add a little context.

That being said, as Tella mentioned, the welcoming party have been issuing messages to all new accounts daily, and the IP team is still up and running.

I know Nami and I maybe didn't get off to the best of starts in our first meeting due to a little misunderstanding in one of the threads, but if you want to speak to someone Nami, then my pm box is open and I promise I will actually reply. A number of people have already reached out to me, and I've tried to help/inform as best I can

Same goes for you too Shoji, and anyone else (be they newcomer or seasoned veteran).

This isn't just a website, it's a church. It's a church that has forgotten it's a church and just focuses in the forum.

Frankly, I for one (a "newcomer" if you will) appreciate that the alleged ugliness of all this is being kept from my eyes. I don't see any value to following the rumor mill of it all, and don't expect any broad daylight fisticuffs would make any of us feel more secure or informed. If anything, it would be far more of a distraction than it already is. There have already been several related threads here in public view, each receiving 100s of posts, the bulk of which amount to speculation at best. Being remarkably interested in this Path, and mostly human, I find myself sifting through and digesting each and every unuseful post anyway, ignoring my outstanding need to set the forum aside and tackle Lesson 4 of the IP instead.

Someone created something remarkable here by founding a virtual Temple with membership in the thousands, and the value of that is clear in the passion and vested interest in the Temple's future, which this entire discussion exhibits.

He should be incredibly proud of all this. It is no small achievement. So his interest in ensuring a proper turnover in retirement is not just expected, but warranted.

In governance we do not declare a new nation-state to be viable until it has achieved three successful and peaceful transitions of power. Patience is paramount in such efforts. Airing out a full and transparent account is not.

There is not a single benefit to me, as a newcomer, to be privy to the higher level discussions in any of this, so long as at the end of it all I can login and get along with my training. If things deteriorated to the extent of a 404 Error when I hit my bookmark to come here one day, I would be sad, sure, but I could still get out of bed and function along my own Path anyway.

Even expending the energy in this post feels awkward for me. I have done so in a few other related threads before they were closed or moved out of view.

The bottom line point for me: thanks to EVERYONE involved, for it shows me that you all do care, but I won't stay up at night and speculate on what the rumors mean, for that is merely anticipating the unknowns of the future and what MIGHT be, and ignoring my opportunity in the eternal moment, NOW.

P.S. if you do not see a Lesson 4 post from me today, that is 100% on me, none of you, and I'd hope someone would notice and call me out.

Cheers

@Sam if you don't want to know what's going on, then you can just not read the thread that I and so many others are asking for. (Which steamboat28 created)

Nami wrote: This isn't just a website, it's a church. It's a church that has forgotten it's a church and just focuses in the forum.

Well said. It is in times such as this that we need to take the flame Jediism into ourselves and truly live it so that it may not die as the candle that is this site flickers.